Bought a pair of Vibram KSO's last November on a lark. A grand experiment. They have earned a place in my shoe collection as a training and racing flat...up to about 6 miles or 10k. Probably have 200-250 miles on them. On or off pavement ok, but my feet start to hurt at 8 to 10 mi mark. And despite what Barefoot Ted says, rocks hurt this tenderfoot! Chose not to run half marathon in them....spring events coming and I did not want something new.
A big test was a 5k for time this past Sunday. Had not raced for time since Dec. 2008 at 5k. Last year's 100 mile mountain quest prevented. Training volume up, this was gonna be for all the marbles. Did the old first time marathoner trick...tell people what you are gonna do, so you have to do it. End up staring at ceiling at 4 am...now I gotta do this. No back down. Time to dig.
I greased up, put on some Injinji socks. Put on the Vibrams, stared at em. Something made me take them off and put on my Saucony road shoes.
Ran a great race. Happy with a 19:22 PR. 51 sec improvement. Not enough to place...any other age group, yes, but 40 something men are out to prove something to the reaper.
Where does this leave the great minimalist shoe experiment? Still an ongoing effort. Looking for some INOV-8 trail shoes...someday. Mostly I have learned to pay attention to my stride more, with deliberate intent of landing mid foot. And I have a TON of miles on my road shoes and trail shoes....500-1000 miles each. And my feet don't hurt, and I am running better than ever.
An un-sung component to this....yoga and targeted strength training and plyometrics. A grown man jumping around the Y like giant bunny rabbit. I suspect...but don't know....the cross training, strength and stretch are helping performance. Run miles not up a lot, but other training is. I suspect this is as big or bigger piece of the pie than the minimal foot wear. Could run in combat boots... if feet and legs and core and upper body are strong, it matters less.
Re-evaluate shoes after 50 mile Ice Age. Running volume will fall off with periodization, out door biking events for May-July. Short distance for time. Never have trained specific for short distance. Gonna see where this goes.
-Larry
1 comments:
Gotta get you some pink bunny ears. And a cotton tail..... Maybe wear your Moebens as well..... see what people say. ;)
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